Reach For the Sky

Introduction

The very first “Toy Story” movie came out in 1995, when I was a freshman in college, but there must be something we still connect with in these movies because just last year - they surprised us all with Toy Story 4. I am sure one of the reasons for the success of these cartoon like movies is that they are based on the coming to life of these iconic toys that so many of us had when we were kids. So now as an adult…give or take... I can be transported back in time to remember my childhood fascination with the Wild West where noble sheriffs were rescuing damsels in distress and locking up the bandits in their cardboard jail.

And in the movies, the hero of this story was the young boys favorite toy, Woody who is a cowboy with a pull string in his back. And do you remember the kind of things that Woody would say when you let his string go?

Funny things like: “There’s a snake in my boots” or

Touching things like “Your my favorite deputy” or

Alarming things like “Someone’s poisoned the water hole” or

the famous line that every 6 year old buck-a-roo couldn’t wait to say: “Reach for the sky”

1 Timothy 3:14–15 ESV

14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Tension

The reason that I bring us down this road of nostalgia to a more innocent time is because I wanted a more light hearted way to introduce our text for today. Especially with everything going on in our world right now, it is not easy to teach on the subject of “submission to authority”, but that is where Paul takes his first letter to Timothy in his goal to give direction on “Behavior in the household of God”

I can’t stress enough how important it is that we keep in the front of our mid the purpose that Paul gives us for this letter. In chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 that he is writing these things so that we may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.. It is not me up here connecting the dots for us, it’s Paul saying this is how we ought to behave in the church. This letter was written to give us the expectations for behavior in the Church of the living God.

I will confess that I am using some creative license this morning in my comparison of the idea of “Reaching for the sky” as it comes out of the movie Toy Story and the command to “lift holy hands” as it is presented in our text today but at least in my mind, twisted as it may be, I was able to connect the two.

Because if you think about it, what did the posture of raising you hands before the Sheriff in the culture of the Wild West signify? It was your submission to the authority of the Sheriff.

If you did in fact “reached for the sky” then the Sheriff knew that you had surrendered yourself to him and he could take you off to the cardboard jail…but...if you didn’t raise your hands but instead placed them in this position then your posture communicated something entirely different didn’t it. You are now challenging the authority of the Sheriff and the showdown would begin.

Now it is one thing if you are raising your hands in submission to an earthly authority like a Sheriff, but our text today is not just about how we should handle our earthly authority, but more importantly how we are charged to play a role in seeing every authority work toward the purposes of God.

Chapter 1 of 1 Timothy spoke to the importance of contending for correct teaching, but Chapter 2 begins his instructions on how we should behave when we gather together as a Church. All of this is rooted in our submission to the one who holds the ultimate authority in our world, our lives and our gatherings together.

So if you would open your Bibles with me to 1 Timothy chapter 2, I’ll pray, we will continue on our quest to see how we “ought to behave in the church of the living God.

Truth

Last week in Chapter 1 we looked at how Paul prioritized the teaching of the right doctrine of the Gospel. This is the foundation for every Christian Church. And then, as it was fitting for Father’s day, we looked at how Paul described his relationship with Timothy being his child in the faith. And then he ends chapter 1 with explaining the stakes that are at play.

1 Timothy 1:18–20 ESV

18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Clearly getting this Church thing right is not an easy task. It never has been, even here in the early church right doctrine and right behavior is something that had to be fought for. They are not just going to happen because some good people who love Jesus gather together. We have to intentioanally engage in the kind of behaviors that are needed to keep ourselves on the right track.

We’ll come back to these two names in a few weeks, but I kind of feel sorry for these two guys who been the examples of being off track for the past 2,000 years.

Anyway to keep us from “shipwrecking” our faith...Our first behavior for the week is that…

We come together to submit our world to Jesus (1 Tim 2:1-4)

1 Timothy 2:1 ESV

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,

When Paul says “first of all” he isn’t just beginning a long list of things of equal importance. This phrase means “Of first importance”. The most important thing to remember when you come together as the body of Christ is that we are here to meet with God in prayer.

Let’s take a moment to unpack these four things that we are being urged to do as a Church because they are of first priority:

Prayer - general term for talking with God

Greek: προσευχή (proseuche…pro-seck-hey) and it is the word that Jesus used when he said that “My house shall be called a house of prayer..” (Matt 21:13) So when we gather together as the “household” of God we are to consider of utmost importance the act of prayer. And in truth, each one of these words can also be translated as “prayer” but they are just prayers aimed in specific directions.

Supplications - asking God to meet our needs

Greek Word: δέησις (deesis) which is a prayer where you ask, request or entreat God to supply something you need.

Intercession - asking God to meet others needs

Greek Word: ἔντευξις (entek-sees) which is a prayer that petitions or requests often on behalf of another

Thanksgiving - thanking God for meeting needs

Greek Word: εὐχαριστία (eucharistia) this probably sounds very familiar for any of us with Catholic backgrounds as it is the word where we get the term “Eucharist” from. Which is a ceremony of thanksgiving for what Christ has done for us.

And Paul’s point was not to create some sort of checklist to make sure that each of these thing happen each time we pray. In fact, some of these words for prayer are not used anywhere else but the Pastoral letters. No, his point was to stack up these different ways to pray in order to multiply the impact of how important it is that when we gather together, we do so in order to pray.

So lets challenge ourselves in this Church...Do we come into this place ready to pray? I am not saying it is the only thing that we do, Paul just finished making his case for the importance of being a Church who teaches the right doctrine of the Gospel…but I ask you again....Do we come into this place each week expecting to meet God in prayer? Or do we just bow our heads close our eyes and wait for the guy up front to stop talking.

When someone is up here leading us in prayer it our responsibility, and even more so our privelage to be engaging with them in prayer. We should be affirming, agreeing or even adding our own words to their prayer. It is not a time to check out or wonder what others brought for the Fellowship Dinner this afternoon…as tempting as that is... We should be taking note of the needs that they bring up and then together as the household of faith we should be laying the needs of our body before our Lord in concentrated corporate prayer.

And who are we to be praying for? All people - but then to show the impact and importance of prayer he gives us an example of just how far this category of “all” reaches.

1 Timothy 2:1–2 ESV

1 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

It is such a humbling thing to realize how our God continues to work through His perfect time in the teaching of His Word here at Friendship Church. There is just no way that I could have known that Wisconsin was going to have the week that we have had and then line up the text to land right here on June 28. The fact that this very week I was calling on our prayer team to be do what these verses command us to do is no coincidence guys. I hope you see this too.

We need to be praying for the leaders in our communities, our state and our country just as God has commanded us, but make no mistake, our tensions with our authorities is small time compared to what these Christians in Paul’s day were dealing with. At this point in history, the emperor of the Roman Empire was a very evil man named Nero.

While so many Roman leaders were seeking peace throughout the empire, this emperor seemed bent on introducing, implementing and celebrating confusion, disorder and moral decay. As he stepped into his role he gave out all kinds of gifts to the masses so as far as they knew he was a great guy, then behind closed doors he perpetrated evils that no one would believe. Of course over time these things began to leak out and he became widely known for his rampant greed, threats, violence and promiscuity of all kinds (really weird stuff)

He even had his own mother assassinated, which is especially crazy since she was only reason he became emperor in the first place but he became jealous of her and after several failed attempts at making it look like an accident, he finally just declared her an enemy of the state and had his military go in and take her out. And as you might imagine, he hated anyone who would stand up to his diabolical leadership, so he especially hated Christians.

Since he was such an ego-maniac, when he decided he wanted to rebuild the city of Rome to his own liking he got very angry and frustrated that various members of the Senate who had lived there for generations he had his men set fire throughout the city so it could not be controlled and he burned half of Rome to the ground. It was reported that he gleefully played his fiddle as he watched Rome burn. But when the Senators complained he blamed…who else…but the hated Christians for it. And they were captured and executed in some of most inhumane ways possible.

Now…with that bit of context, let’s look at this command again…Right!?...What is that you say Paul? Pray for “all people, for kings and all who are in high positions” That is a pretty bold command isn’t it? But what does Paul say is the purpose for all of this? that we may lead peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way”

Just as bold, and arguably even bolder, than the command to pray for a wicked emperor, is Paul’s claim that it will make a difference.

Even over a guy like this - it will make a difference. Choose any leaders or authority in your life and you begin to pray for them and it will make a difference. Get the whole Church to be praying for that person and it will make a difference. Our prayers have the power to make a difference...

The question is, what kind of difference? To what end are these prayers so powerful? To the same purposes that our God is always after.

That our world would operate in such a way that the good news of Jesus Christ would be free to be declared in both word and deed. We pray so that the people in high positions in our life would be moved to allow us more and more opportunity to communicate the Gospel.

This is not about a political party or a political agenda or political position - those are good conversations to have, but that is not where Paul is right now. He is instructing the Church to pray that even the most evil of Kings might make decisions that would allow their subjects to “peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” in order to see the Gospel go forth. That is why Paul says:

1 Timothy 2:3–4 ESV

3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

When we come together as a Church body, we need to submit our world to the Lordship of Jesus Christ through corporate prayer, so that we would be even more free to go out and communicate “the life giving message of Jesus Christ”.

Secondly,

Come together to submit our lives to Jesus (1 Tim 2:5-7)

What is the truth that God wants every person to come to? What is the truth that we come in here each week to remind each other once again - because we often forget it through out our week? At least our actions do not demonstrate that we have the truth in the front of our thinking!

1 Timothy 2:5–7 ESV

5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

We never leave the Gospel. Every believer starts here. Every believer continues here. Every believer will someday move on from here by the power in this truth. We come together every week to remind each other of what we share together. A belief in one true God and one true way to know him - through the payment that Jesus made on our behalf. Whatever else we do when we gather, this must be central. That we would work each week to help each other to live our lives in submission to the message of the Gospel.

Thirdly, this morning, we

Come together to submit our gatherings to Jesus (1 Tim 2:8-10)

In truth, this is not simply the final point for this morning but really the general theme of the entire book of 1 Timothy. Remember the book is all about how one ought to behave -IN -the household of faith. There is all kinds of things written throughout the New Testament on how we should all behave in general. How we should individually strive to live righteously in response to what Christ has done for us.

But the unique thing about these Pastoral letters is that they are written specifically to instruct us on how we should behave when we gather together as a Church. That there are expectations for our behavior when we gather together.

This is not an easy thing to accept in a world like ours where there are so many different ways of “doing church”. So many different denominations and theological traditions and spiritual experiences that it is hard to imagine that anything written 2,000 years ago could still have bearing on how we practice “the Church of the living God” today. But it does…and we need to grapple with how we are doing as a Church fulfilling these commands.

And don’t think for a moment that the Church in Paul’s day didn’t deal with a diversity of experiences when it came to different “faith traditions”. They came in with experience with everything from the Jewish Synagogue to the pagan temple of Artemis. And I am sure many of them thought that there were things from their various experiences that could be helpful in their desire to worship Jesus.

We will come back to this in the weeks to come, but for this morning Paul points to two things that needed to be addressed in their weekly worship service each week. The first issue was something that the men were primarily doing wrong and the second was an issue primarily for the women although in both case the root problem was the same.

First of Paul says in verse 8

1 Timothy 2:8 ESV

8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling;

“Reach for the Sky” - Right?

It appears that these men were coming into the Church with motives outside of meeting with the Lord in prayer. Instead of raising their hands in prayerful submission to the God they had come together to worship they were pursuing other agenda’s. Two things will help them know they are back on track

1. They are to lift holy hands

The lifting of “holy hands” is not so much about the posture as it is about what the posture signified in that day. The Bible actually mentions many different postures for prayer. Lifting the hands is only one but there are also examples of kneeling, standing, sitting, bowing the head, lifting the eyes, and even falling on the ground. So this wasn’t really about the position of their hands as much as it was about the position of their heart. In their preparations to meet God in prayer they were to confess and repent of their sins so that when they lifted their hands up in submission to Jesus they would be lifting holy hands.

2. They are to pray without anger or quarreling.

It was not uncommon for Jewish men to bring their grievances into the court of public opinion at the Synagogue each week. All the men took different sides and these large arguments took place so that no one seemed to care any more what they had come their to do.

This had worked it way into the Christian Churches where men came in not to pray and worship together with the Household of God but to let everyone know who wronged them. It was not about lovingly correcting a brother who has sinned against you - it was about proving you were right in such a public way that all anyone could see in that other guy was “wrong”.

These men were not submitting the gathering to Jesus - they were making the gathering all about themselves. Paul’s next correction for the women is very similar:

1 Timothy 2:9–10 ESV

9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works.

Where we could say that the men were causing distractions with their desire for arguments, here we see the women causing distractions with their desire for attention.

The goal for these women was to come into the gathering dressed in such a way that people would pay just as much, if not more, attention to the way they were dressed then they were to the purpose for their gathering. Which again was prayer and worship.

Obviously there are some contextual aspects of these verses as many of the things that were attention getters back then would not really work for women today. But the principle remains the same, even if women get peoples attention differently today.

Gospel Application

I love the way that Warren Wirsbe labeled this section of scripture. He called it a question between entering a Service — or a Circus. That makes a lot of sense to me. My family and I met my parents down in Baraboo WI at the Circus WorId Museum. And we had a great time enjoying the show that they put on their under their big top with just one ring - but we saw pictures of how they used to do the circus’ with three rings. There were clowns juggling over here and Elephants walking over there and trappeeze artist swinging through the air up there. I don’t know how they chose which act to follow? It had to be information overload as each act vied for your attention.

That is exactly what will happen to a church where each person comes in with an agenda to have their issue or their outfit be the center of attention. Instead we all need to recognize that we came in here to play a part in a unified service to our King.

To submit our world to Jesus, in prayer that can move Kings and authorities. 1 Timothy 2:1-4

To submit our lives to Jesus, who gave himself for our ransom. 1 Timothy 2:5-7

To submit our gatherings to Jesus, that all our attention and practices would be centered on honoring His will and ways. 1 Timothy 2:8-10

Landing

So would you prepare your heart right now for prayer… (pray through the three points of submission)